DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-2195684944 data center Keep Your Cool: The Importance Of Advanced Side Stream Filtration In Data Center Operation

Advanced side stream filtration protects sensitive cooling infrastructure in data centers, extending membrane life, reducing water and energy use, and preventing costly downtime caused by particulate-loaded cooling water.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Two-Way Fixed Network Helps Texas Community Become 'City Of The Future'

    In January 2014, the city of Meadows Place, Texas, became the first city in Fort Bend County to fully convert to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) fixed-network system. At the same time, the city also implemented a complete meter change-out for its 1,600 customers. Both projects represent large initiatives for the self-proclaimed “little city” with a population of 4,600 citizens.

  • Pipeline Assessment Technology Helps English Water Utility Love Every Drop

    In response to a projection of future significant population growth in the area, a utility evaluated 7.2 km (4.5 miles) of an existing line between a reservoir and a treatment facility to determine if it could stand up to increased stress.

  • 6 Objections To AMI – And Why They Are No Longer Valid

    This article presents common misconceptions about advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) among water utilities, and why modern AMI technology, in particular NaaS, overcomes them.

  • Reducing Legionella Risks On Cruise Ships

    With 125 new cruise ships set to enter the world’s by 2027, boosting the number of ships to over 550 and providing capacity for about 40 million guests per year, maintaining passenger health is of great importance.

  • Instrumenting The Water Network: The Time Is Now

    With the improved capabilities and affordability of today’s sensor technology, now is the time for water utilities to instrument their networks from the source to the customer.

  • Utility Improves Data Accuracy, Customer Service With Advanced Metering Analytics

    Bethpage Water District’s (New York) outdated water metering system led to customer service concerns, such as a slow response time for detecting leaks and insufficient data for billing inquiries. By installing new meters and advanced metering analytics software, the district increased visibility into its operations, resulting in greater revenue and improved customer service.

  • Every Drop Counts

    The fast-growing city of Lincolnton, North Carolina, installs new metering system that’s addressing “meterbox blindness” – and quickly recovering lost revenue in the process.

  • Cooling Towers Are Not The Problem — Or At Least They Don't Have To Be

    Water quite literally flows through every facet of life, being the key element for everyone and everything on Earth. The world’s population is increasing at 1.1 percent (roughly 83 million) every year, an incredible and alarming rate straining the world’s fresh water supply. The increasing pressures between what humanity demands and what is currently available emphasizes the importance of conservation.

  • Drinking Water Treatment - Coquitlam Water Treatment Plant, British Columbia

    In 2005, in response to changes to the Canadian Drinking Water Quality guidelines, the Greater Vancouver Water District Board approved a proposal to upgrade the Coquitlam WTP with UV treatment technology to act as the primary means of inactivation.

  • Chloramination Monitoring And Control

    Since the EPA has established that, together with free chlorine, monochloramine is a primary disinfectant, it has been possible to implement the process more intensively. Water that is treated with monochloramine has, depending on the source of the water, fewer problems concerning taste and odor than water treated with free chlorine. In addition, the chemically more stable monochloramine remains longer in the water, thus allowing a long-term disinfecting effect.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Application Note: Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership Addresses Concerns In A Rural Watershed
    1/20/2010
    As with other watershed organizations, the Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership (BCWP) exists because of surface water quality degradation. In this case, those waters drain 163,231 acres of a watershed that crosses the boundaries of Vigo, Clay, Green, and Sullivan counties in West- Central Indiana. By YSI
  • Cloth Media Filtration Removes Coal Ash And Coal Fines At Power Plants
    1/15/2019

    Coal-fired power plants generate coal fines and coal ash from a number of sources, including coal combustion residuals (CCR), particularly fly and bottom ash from coal furnaces, and coal pile runoff during rain events. In support of an industry-wide effort to reduce, improve, and remove coal ash ponds, a variety of technologies have been tested and employed. Read the full application note to learn more.

  • VFD Energy Savings For Pumping Applications
    4/6/2017

    In the early days of variable frequency drive (VFD) technology, the typical application was in process control for manufacturing synthetic fiber, steel bars, and aluminum foil.

  • Process Optimization For Flow Measurement
    4/29/2021

    The Saalfeld-Rudolfstadt Association in Germany must rely on cutting-edge technologies that optimize flow measurement in order to allow for smooth processes and supply 82,000 inhabitants with clean drinking water. 

  • Innovative Solutions To Drinking Water Decontamination In Small And Medium Treatment Plants
    9/21/2017

    Air stripping technology effectively removes VOCs, THMs, and CO2 for improved adherence to water quality regulations.

  • Ion Exchange Resins And Activated Carbons For Better-Tasting Water
    12/18/2013

    For many, access to good-tasting tap water is limited, and buying bottled water can be expensive. Simple pour-through jug filters offer a low-cost and effective alternative. Activated carbons, in conjunction with ion exchange products, produce drinking water that is absent of all industrial pesticides and contaminants.

  • Biofouling Control In Cooling Towers With A Halogen Stabilizer
    10/22/2020

    Biofouling in cooling towers is undesirable because it can reduce heat transfer efficiency, restrict water flow, and accelerate corrosion rates. Of even greater concern is the fact that pathogen growth in cooling towers can lead to disease transmission. Given the favorable growth environment of a cooling tower, these microorganisms can reproduce, proliferate and form complex biofilm communities. Legionella bacteria, which cause Legionnaires’ disease, are one of the greatest concerns from a public health standpoint because infections are often lethal and cooling towers are the most frequently reported non-potable water source of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks (Llewellyn 2017).

  • LC-MS Analysis Of PFAS Compounds In EPA 533 After Supelclean™ ENVI-WAX SPE Cleanup
    8/29/2022

    This application note demonstrates the extraction and subsequent analysis of 25 related analytes from water using Supelco SPE cartridges.

  • Application Note: Ozone Measurement In Potable Water
    3/1/2010

    Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that can be used to destroy the organic compounds that affect the taste and odor of potable water. Environmental concerns have led to increased use of ozone because, unlike chlorine, it does not form hazardous by-products.

  • Optimizing Brine Flow In A Geothermal Power Plant
    1/27/2022

    Different flow meter technologies were used in this geothermal power plant to monitor and measure brine. However, these traditional technologies failed. That’s where Panametrics PT900 Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter was able to help.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The Swan AMI DIST series offers three options for measuring chlorine, pH, conductivity and Turbidity on one easy to install, easy to maintain panel.

Say hello to the Myron L Company ULTRAPENx2™ PTBT6 Nitrate & Temp pen. It features an array of high-performance features.

The OPTIFLUX 4300 is an electromagnetic flowmeter (EMF) for advanced process applications with aggressive liquids or abrasive media. The high-end flowmeter is particularly suitable for critical applications requiring high accuracy and many diagnostic functions. It enables reliable measurement even under very harsh process conditions with temperatures up to +180°C / +356°F, low conductivities (≥1 µS/cm), high solid contents (up to 70%) and high pressures (up to 1500 bar / 21751 psi). For custody transfer applications, the OPTIFLUX 4300 has a wide range of certifications including OIML R49 and R117 or MI-001 and MI-005. It can also be used for flow measurement in district heating networks requiring MI-004 approval.

In many water treatment and food purification applications, activated carbon is used in conjunction with ion exchange resins to provide an end-product of the desired quality and purity.

The SoundPrint® AFO Continuous Remote Monitoring Platform is a proactive pipeline monitoring solution that uses acoustic fiber optic (AFO) technology to detect structural deterioration in prestressed concrete cylinder pipelines (PCCP). By continuously listening for wire breaks and other anomalies, the system enables utilities to assess pipeline health in real time, reducing the risk of catastrophic failures and extending asset life. Data is securely transmitted to a cloud-based dashboard, providing operators with actionable insights for maintenance and capital planning.

Harmsco has developed a higher capacity filter housing that is BABA compliant, and it is available in a 3X, as well as a 5X model.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Water Research Foundation at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center talking with Jim Fiedler and Andrew Salveson about upcoming WRF Direct Potable Reuse research projects.

Alex and the crew travel to Saudi Arabia and talk to Noura Shehab, a Ph.D. student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), about her research to use microbes to power sea water desalination.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy speaks at the 40th Anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) on December 9, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

North Carolina’s Cape Fear River is a massive water system. It stretches across the lower half of the state, collecting runoff from 29 counties and providing water to millions of people. But in the city of Wilmington, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean, the water has residents worried.

Why have only 20% of water utilities deployed an AMI fixed network?  If you are considering a fixed network, I've got something you seriously need to consider prior to soliciting quotations or putting out your RFP. The question is, who is going to manage the network infrastructure? Do you have qualified individuals within your utility ready to continuously monitor, maintain and manage the network? In this video, we're going to discuss some of the options available for water utilities today: a utility managed network versus a network as a service agreement (NaaS).

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.